I'm from Chicago. I know politics. Politics ain't beanbag. That's what they're saying Chicago.

If you meet any Chicago politician, they're fiercely proud of the city's reputation for rough and tumble politics.

They say, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. And on the campaign trail, Obama regularly touted his Chicago roots, citing it as evidence that he was tough.

We know how to mix it up. We know how to throw some elbows. I'm skinny, but I'm tough.

To survive politics here, you have to be a fighter. And it's from this world that Barack Obama, the politician, emerged.

This was from Harold's campaign in 1987. And you know, in a sense, you can see the foundation of the Obama future right now.

David Axelrod is credited as one of the masterminds behind both of Barack Obama's presidential campaign victories.

But back in 1987, he developed the media strategy for the second successful campaign of Harold Washington, the first African-American mayor of Chicago.

Here's Harold singing from the podium the night of that victory.

How would you describe Chicago politically and socially when Barack Obama arrived here?

Well, Barack Obama came to Chicago at a time of real turmoil.

Harold Washington had been elected mayor of Chicago the year before he came.

In the last episode of Making Obama, we talked about Barack Obama's arrival in the city and his work as a community organizer on the south side of Chicago.

And mine was the first to offer.

They got...

They will chew him up and spit him out in on him.

He was influenced by his studies of the civil rights movement. Such images became a form of prayer for me.

That was my idea of organizing. It was a promise of redemption.

And so he came here to pursue what he concluded was his identity.

You know, I think I have learned how much change you can make.

Every issue we had led us to the door of a politician.

Obama came to the conclusion that if you can't beat Harold, you've got to be Harold.

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